CHEd develops new nursing curriculum with ‘exit credentials’

Commission on Higher Education’s Prospero de Vera III. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) said it had formulated a new nursing curriculum that includes “exit credentials,” allowing nursing students to work even after finishing only a year of their studies.

“We have developed a BS (Bachelor of Science) Nursing curriculum with exit credentials that means it is a regular Nursing program, but at year one or after two or three years, there is an exit provision so that after one year, you can have a certificate and you can have a nursing aid and nursing assistance,” said CHEd chair Prospero De Vera in a press conference.

“If you finish all four years, you will receive a bachelor of science in nursing,” he added.

De Vera said the curriculum was developed after a discussion with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the private sector.

“Now, that means if you run this program in one to two years, in one to two years we [would] have additional nursing manpower which we can already implement in our health facilities because the need for nursing professionals is not only nursing graduates, there are intermediate credentials that can be used,” said De Vera.

This curriculum, said De Vera, is CHEd’s medium intervention to address the shortage of nurses in the country.

De Vera said Marcos has already instructed CHEd to proceed with the proposal, noting that the private sector recommended CHEd’s proposal, adding that the agency is now also mobilizing regional networks regarding the proposal.

“We will move on it as fast as we can,” he said.

To recall, this came after Marcos on Wednesday ordered the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to address the shortage of nurses due to migration.

During the press conference, De Vera cited several possible causes for the shortage, including the gap between Nursing graduates and enrollees.

“You see a big gap between the enrollment, the graduates and the board passers,” he said.

“So you see that our graduation rate of nursing graduates has not significantly increased with the demand both domestically and all over the world,” he added.

De Vera said that based on DOH’s data, 51 percent of the total nursing professionals in the country are migrant workers, while only 28.5 percent are in local health facilities, 19.7 percent in unspecified practice, while 0.6 are in other fields.

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